Square-Enix Is Hiring For The Next Major Dragon Quest

Square-Enix has confirmed that the next major Dragon Quest title is under development, and they are currently in the process of recruiting for various positions for the game.   According to a letter from Takeshi Uchikawa, the game just finished being in the conception stage and now they are working on “improving the quality of the game”, which sounds like they just wrapped up pre-production and are getting to work on the actual title now.

Though this seems a little early with Dragon Quest XI having just come out in the states last September, and with the Switch version coming out this September, the original game actually released almost two years ago in July of 2017.   Aside from work on the “definitive” Switch version, the company has been basically quiet on their plans for the next title until very recently.  Though we were unsure of how far along they were in the planning, given that they’re currently looking for positions like battle planners and motion designers, there’s likely already a clear vision for the next game.

The question now is what system Dragon Quest is going to land on?  The PlayStation 4’s time in the sun is nearly done, and even after Dragon Quest XI was first shown off back in 2015 it was another two years before the game actually released in Japan, and it didn’t see any attention worldwide until the year after that.  It’s safe to assume by the time they’re even ready to show us this game, we’ll already have the PlayStation 5 on the market.   Of course, that doesn’t even mean the game is going to be designed for the PS5.   Dragon Quest typically seeks out the most popular system with the widest install base in Japan, which is why Dragon Quest VIII was for PS2, Dragon Quest IX was for the DS, and Dragon Quest X was for the Wii.

Each of those systems were absurdly popular, and while Dragon Quest XI came out on PlayStation 4 at the time, it was mostly down to desire from Dragon Quest creator Yuji Hori wanting to do the game in HD, otherwise it probably would’ve only had a 3DS version. That having been said, the Nintendo Switch is about as popular in Japan as console systems can get these days. It would not be surprising if the next DQ was developed for the Switch, even if it was later ported to a potential PlayStation 5.  That said, if they’re just now leaving pre-production it’ll be some time before we know for sure where the game finally lands.